April is here! I alluded to it last week, but this month on Fresh Jess shall henceforth be known as 30Fresh. I am turning 30 this month, and will also be celebrating five years of blogging! Fresh Jess is technically already five (if you look at the archives, they'll date back to February 2008), but I kept this blog on the low for a couple of months until I felt comfortable telling everyone I was blogging. I've never celebrated blog birthdays before, but five years blogging and thirty years overall felt like a good milestone for cupcakes, balloons and some extra, extra-special posts.

This is what I looked like when I started Fresh Jess! Still eatin them cupcakes though

So what can you expect to see this month?

A deeper look at me and my life than ever before. After years of simply sharing cool things I learned about, I've slowly started to incorporate more of my self and what's currently taking precedence in my life in more posts (see my Resolution Challenge ones for example.) Every single post this month will have exceptional significance to me. I've interviewed my best friends, have special features in the queue on my family & dog, rundowns of my favorite people, places and things, and so much more. I've enlisted the creative talents of a couple of my friends to bring you some new and fresh photos, imagery and sounds. During 30Fresh, you'll also see the introduction of five new contributors to Fresh Jess. These amazing young talents are the natural evolution of this blog as I take on and explore more projects in the name of FJ.

There'll be one post every day this month dedicated to 30Fresh, so it's pretty straightforward - but if you need to, look for this photo in my sidebar & at the bottom of each post to find all related posts.

So let's get it!

Let's start this off with ten simple facts about me. If this is your first time here, or first time paying attention, whatever - this is a good list to start from.

I was born & raised in Seattle - a rarity in the city nowadays. I've had a string of great opportunities that have kept me here. It's not totally out of the question to see me living elsewhere, but for now I'm having a blast in the 206.

I'm 100% Filipina-American. My family speaks Tagalog & Ilocano.

My boyfriend is a professional mixed martial arts fighter. That's not his primary full-time job (yet), but it's awesome and I'm immensely proud of him.

We are the proud parents of Spike, the english bulldog. We adopted Spike in November 2011 from Bulldog Haven NW, a local rescue we've both supported regularly since our first boy, Meatball, passed away in 2010.

I'm an information junkie. I love to read. My Twitter faves, Pocket saves, Google Reader (sorry - Feedly) & email are all filled with gems of articles and I make it a point to read through them at least once a week.

This year I've started to incorporate more of a superfood diet into my life. However, I cannot resist a good Mexican Coke when the time is right.

I have a love/hate relationship with working out. Who doesn't, right? I call any kind of working out I do Gym Jones, after the 300 workout. I am not actually doing the 300 workout when I mention Gym Jones.

I'm a freelance independent consultant focused on social media strategy for a diverse range of clients. I do this to have more control over my schedule, to devote to working on Fresh Jess!

I'm extremely loyal and devoted to my best friends. I'm introducing you to them during 30Fresh, and I can't wait for you to meet them!

I'm so hyped to bring you 30 days of fun posts! Thank you so much for five years of your readership. I cannot thank you enough!